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Mark Dresser

Biography

A major innovator on the contrabass, Mark Dresser inhabits his own niche among the eclectic New York Downtown scene. Working with like-minded bandleaders Anthony Braxton and Gerry Hemingway -- in addition to heading his own diverse projects -- he has explored various intersections of Avant Garde Jazz, Twentieth Century classical, and Free Improvisation with consistently challenging and cerebral results. The solo (with some overdubs) CD Invocation offers a chance to hear his trademark scraping-and-sawing bass work in unadulterated form. His most "out" CD, it is also his most physical and as a result perhaps more immediately gripping than his others. 1997's Banquet, while composed for a classical chamber ensemble, has a roughly similar feel, mixing tense, brooding romanticism with plenty of atonal string writing and extended instrumental techniques. The remainder of his output, which ranges from neo-Third Stream chamber jazz to silent film accompaniment, maintains his well-defined personality as a serious, deep-thinking man with little time for joking around.